"Oakland airport to privatize parking"

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Oakland airport to privatize parking
By Paul T. Rosynsky
The Tri-Valley (CA) Herald
 
 
OAKLAND - Running an airport parking lot is not what it used to be, and the
Port of Oakland has learned that lesson the hard way. 

Over the last decade, the number of air travelers using airport parking lots
has declined, costing the port millions of dollars. 

Most of that parking business has gone elsewhere, usually to off-airport
lots that offer cheaper rates and more amenities. 

In response, port officials want to do the same with their three lots at
Oakland International Airport and will seek a private firm to help. 

"The issue is, you have to run parking like a business and the port has not
really had to do that," said Port Aviation Director Steve Grossman. "We
don't spend much on marketing parking lots, we don't react to changes in the
marketplace." 

While the port has maintained a relatively simple advertising campaign to
attract air travelers to its lots, the competition has offered more for
less. 

They've offered car washes while you're traveling on business. Oil changes
when on a family vacation. Cheaper rates and more frequent shuttles to their
lots, which are just a few miles from the airport's main lobby. 

As a result, the number of people using the airport's lots, which offer
nothing but proximity to the airport, has decreased by almost half,
according to port documents. 

Where in 1996 more than 40 percent of the people using the airport parked in
its lots, so far this year only 23 percent did so. 

"It's pretty obvious that it has been some time that we have not been able
to fully utilize the spaces we have," said Port Commissioner Frank Kiang, a
member of the commission's aviation committee. "Parking has just become a
very specialized business." 

And a business that port staff members said is better left to the private
sector. 

Port officials said they believe they can find a firm to take over the
parking lots at the airport. That firm then would guarantee a minimum
payment to the port each year for the right to do what it wants with airport
parking lots. 

In addition, the port would work out a formula to share some of the profits
the company might make. 

In return, the company would get the right to make decisions about the
parking lot, which could include setting parking rates and changing what is
considered an economy lot and what is the hourly lot. 

Should the port follow through with its plan, it would be one of only a
handful of airports to have put their lots into private hands, Grossman
said. 

"We would be blazing new ground with this," he said.


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